8/20/1998

“…the ability to intercept Osama bin Laden’s Inmarsat [satellite telephone] calls was lost shortly after America’s August [20] 1998 bombing strikes on Afghan terrorist training sites. One official told me [columnist Bill Gertz] that the link went silent after a report in the Washington Post quoted a former U.S. intelligence official as saying that the NSA [National Security Agency] had been monitoring bin Laden’s telephone.”

 – Bill Gertz, Breakdown, Page 129